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Gov. Chris Christie is proposing to shift the state’s behavioral health programs, including four state psychiatric hospitals, from the Department of Human Services to the Department of Health this summer, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. | AP Photo

State Week: Governors meet with Trump team on health bill

Governors will hear from Vice President Mike Pence and top administration health officials on the GOP’s latest efforts to repeal Obamacare during the governors' annual summer meeting in Rhode Island this weekend.

So far, Republican governors have been relatively quiet about the updated bill released Thursday. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, who was strongly opposed to the original draft, expressed concern that the updated version retains deep Medicaid cuts, but he stopped short of opposing the bill. He will talk privately with Pence today, he told Rachana Pradhan at the National Governors Association meeting.

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Meanwhile, Ohio Gov. John Kasich panned the proposal as “unacceptable" Friday morning. "Its cuts to Medicaid are too deep and at the same time it fails to give states the ability to innovate in order to cope with those reductions," he said in a statement. "It also doesn't do enough to stabilize the insurance market, where costs are rising unsustainably and companies are simply dropping coverage."

HHS Secretary Tom Price and CMS Administrator Seema Verma are also making the trip with Pence to the governors meeting today.

NEW JERSEY — Gov. Chris Christie is proposing to shift the state’s behavioral health programs, including four state psychiatric hospitals, from the Department of Human Services to the Department of Health this summer, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Christie says the plan will help integrate behavioral and physical health services that are currently overseen by two separate departments. The move would mean 200 state workers and nearly $1 billion in state and federal funding would be shifted to the new department. The programs service about 100,000 people.

IOWA — The Insurance Division will hold three public hearings on a stopgap proposal intended to shore up the state’s fragile insurance market, the Des Moines Register reports. Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen proposed the plan last month over concern that no insurers would offer individual plans in Iowa next year. Medica announced it would sell in the state after the announcement was made. Still, Ommen is pushing ahead with his plan, which calls for $80 million in federal funding to help stabilize the market. Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the largest carrier in the state, has signaled it would re-enter Iowa's individual market if CMS approves the plan.

MINNESOTA — The state’s new health insurance rebate program is costing significantly less than expected, the Pioneer Press reports. The $310 million program, which gives 25 percent rebates to eligible consumers, has only doled out about $46.9 million since April. At that rate, it’s poised to spend about $140 million by the end of the year, or less than half of what the program was expected to cost. However, officials say the lower costs are the result of about 80,000 fewer people buying health coverage this year compared to 2016. The decrease was mainly driven through plans sold outside of MNsure, the state’s exchange. MNsure has actually seen increased enrollment this year.

FLORIDA — At least one Medicaid HMO will have to return money to the state after earning too much profit in 2015, but health regulators aren’t sharing details. Six months after Deputy Secretary for Medicaid Beth Kidder told state lawmakers a health plan would have to repay the state, the health department hasn't named names. The department is attributing the delay to complications stemming from a billing error that resulted in $378 million in underpayments to the plans.

NEW YORK — In what is becoming an annual tradition, New Yorkers filed their complaints with the Department of Financial Services over ever-increasing premiums. The 16 insurers planning to sell exchange coverage are seeking a weighted average increase of 16.6 percent — virtually identical to the rate hike approved last August. About 40 percent of customers in New York's individual market don't receive subsidies that would blunt the impact of rate hikes.

TEXAS — More women in Texas want long-term or permanent contraception than are receiving the benefit, according to new research from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project. The group surveyed 1,700 women at eight hospitals around the state after they gave birth. About a third of the women who wanted long-term or permanent contraceptive were using less effective methods, such as condoms or withdrawal, six months after delivery. The state’s Medicaid program covers long-acting and permanent contraception immediately after delivery, but the benefit isn’t available through the state’s CHIP perinatal program, which covers women not eligible for Medicaid.